I say don't touch it. Im sure you want you marble to steal the show --- let eh sink play second fiddle. It is lovely as is.

Judging from your pictures, I think it plays well with the gray in the blue bahia as well as your cabinet color. Plus, as mtnrdredux noted, it's best to let your strong stones assume center stage. I'd leave it as well.

I think your sink is feeling very happy just the way it is, and it can't wait to play with your granite. I would leave it alone.

I so love the texture of this sink. I wonder if it would work to have some decorative tiles cut from the slab and use it on front of the sink rather then try to match paint to the slab.

That's my inclination too. I'm just really sad about giving up my blue sink and I wanted to see what everyone else thought and if someone wanted to justify making it blue :)

We're going to take the whole heavy 227 pound thing to the granite fabricators and hold it up to the sink next weekend to make sure the colors match and look OK together and then we're probably going to leave it alone...

Beagles, the bahia is gorgeous -- I agree with with mtn and marcolo, let it be the star.

Plus the sink as is in the natural color has that French limestone look to it, so it suits the rest of the kitchen very well. Your concrete fabricator did a fabulous job. Not to mention the fact that natural concrete goes with pretty much anything : ).

Becky

remodelfla how would that work? I don't suppose you'd have any pictures or any idea what to google to find pictures of something like that done?

That is one beautiful sink. I would just enjoy it as it is.

Thanks beckysharp. I am very very pleased with my concrete fabricator. He was also very reasonably priced. Most of the quotes I got for doing this sink were in the thousands... his was in the $800's. If anyone needs a concrete fabricator anywhere near PA, I'd love to recommend him.

When you say paint it blue, do you mean paint? Not concrete stain??

My feeling is to leave it as is.

That is a wonderful sink! (Just curious - how much does it weigh?) I love it just the way it is and think it has a personality all its own with the subtle variations in the concrete. And your granite is smashing. I'm another vote for leaving the sink as is - I think it will look great with your granite.

That is some freakin' gorgeous granite and a pretty groovin sink. I cannot wait to see the package put together!!!!!!!!!

chicagoans, It weighs 227 pounds. Thank heavens I absolutely and completely and 10000 percent trust my cabinet maker, right ;)

yes kellied, when i referred to paint, I meant paint.

In that case, I would NOT paint it. No integrity.

I love the sink as is! My only concern would be if the blue paint/stain can hold up to high water use?

Another vote for letting your stone take centre stage - I think the sink looks lovely as it is.

The sink is lovely. The color is lovely. My only concern is that most of your kitchen style is a little more formal than this sink. To make up for it, you might want a fancier faucet to kind of elevate it.

pllog, I've got TWO fancy pants faucets (at least I think) going on this sink:
This faucet in brushed nickel for the main faucet:

and this for the instant hot/cold faucet:

So hopefully that fancies it up a little.

DF I think is going to be kind of upset if we don't paint the sink... but I think that the overwhelming positives of keeping it as is will convince him.

Oh, beagles - that is a beautiful sink!!!! I am a total blue person - usually even have blue nail polish - but I would leave the sink the way it is. I think it will look gorgeous with everything else you are doing. I am jealous of your Blue Bahia (wish I could afford it) and think it should get top billing in your kitchen. My $.02.

Yup. Fancy pants. :)

Put me firmly in the don't paint group. :)

Painting concrete is a temporary fix. Even commercially painted epoxy floors fail after some time. When the paint fails, it has to be scraped/sanded off in order for it to be recoated. A sink wouldn't receive as much abrasion as a floor, but it has the other main cause of paint failure: water. Concrete is porous and will readily absorb water and water vapor. Your painted sink wouldn't last that long before it began to have paint failure. So for functionality's sake, it would be unwise to paint a concrete sink.

IMHO, the sink looks gorgeous as it is.

Also, ever heard the saying "Too much of a good thing?" I really believe a blue sink with a blue countertop may appear overwhelming at worst, or the sink will get lost, at best.

Also, you CANNOT paint concrete! Even Drylok peels off concrete if it gets wet (see basement forum)! The stuff used on garages is a 2-part resin. There are two big problems with that: 1) it is not meant to be constantly wet like a sink. 2) it is NOT food safe (I'm pretty sure it's toxic, in fact).

Can you stain it? Yes, but with constant wear and tear (like a sink gets) it will not last very long. If it was added before it was poured that would be different, but it would have taken a lot of trial and error to mix the perfect formula to match your counter (and a LOT of grinding / polishing to match the sheen).

See the post on having antique cast iron sinks re-enameled. Because the government banned the use of lead in all enamel formulations the new formulas just do not last. You're better off keeping the old chipped enamel than having a sink disintegrate right in front of your eyes. I'd fear the same result trying to paint concrete.

Stupid question, but doesn't Kohler make a blue sink? I know they no longer make the bright red one, so maybe not.

Looking at the sink again, the coloring actually looks like antique Limestone to me, not ordinary Portland cement. Antique Limestone definitely fits French Country, and I'd even consider painting the cabinets it sits in a pale creamy yellow/beige to match (but that may just be my monitor).

I'm with the majority - leave that cool sink the way it is. I can't wait to see your kitchen - I'm a total blue kitchen fan myself.

Can't wait for the reveal photos!

Everyone has convinced me!! Now I have to convince DF!

natschultz, thanks for the advice! Kohler does make 2 blue sinks actually- one is sky blue (too light, not right) and the other is cobalt (too purple, too dark). We tried them both. We also tried the whitehaus blue sink and that was too purple. We also went to Lowes to try to get their primrose apron front in blue (they actually make 2 different versions that were an OK color) but I did not want an acrylic sink and then they discontinued the one that we liked anyway and it would have been another special order and we already had the whitehaus blue sink which was a special order that we could not return.

Essentially, we tried EVERY SINGLE blue sink except for the $3000+ Herbeau and we probably even would have thought about that one, insane though the cost is, if it wasn't a 17 inch sink!! (This one is a 36 incher!)

Yellow would be interesting for the cabinet color, but I know we have our heart set on our cabinet maker's color match to Benjamin Moore glacier white after a great deal of agonizing over what color would look right w/ our marble. We also are already doing stained yellow cabinets in the conservatory and the great room and we don't want to have all our cabinets throughout the house be the same yellow. I also already ordered cabinet pulls that I am enamored with w/ that are mother of pearl in a beautiful white that I love and that wouldn't look right with yellow (and yes, for those who are reading who remember the thread where I was advised against them, I decided I loved them too much not to have them and so I got them for my china cabinet anyway... sorry!!)

3mutts I hope you are ready to wait a while. THIS is the current state of my kitchen and house (I don't even have any really great pictures of my kitchen b/c it it is an undrywalled box right now.. but this will give you some idea :)

Breakfast nook & a little bit of the china cabinet wall to the left

Partial shot of the range wall to the right:

Sink wall w/ corner walk-in pantry:

I agree it looks nice as it is already when paired with your bahia. I think the fact that it isn't blue will make the blue in your counters stand out more.
Of course, the whole "toxic and will peel" argument trumps my aesthetic one, lol......

BTW - love the blue bahia and will also be excited to see the outcome ;)

Wow! $3,000 for a prep sink? Insane!

Odd that all the blues are purple; I mean, how many people actually have purple kitchens? And I thought finding the perfect green with a grey (not yellow) undertone was hard!

I actually think that pale yellow looks beautiful with marble - it really makes the marble "pop." But, if you are staining other cabs yellow, then unless that particular color works in the kitchen I wouldn't do it because making different yellows work together is a lot harder than it seems.

Honestly, I am THRILLED to see that someone else's current kitchen looks just like mine! Ok, we already have the floor in, but the ceiling is still exposed joists, and we have yet to rip out the old windows and replace them. Actually, yours looks better - ours still has the 1970's wood paneling on the walls! The new kitchen was the old 1950's den addition, and we expanded it to have a family room (was an "L", now straight), so we put in the new floor across the entire space (in order to close the permit) before demoing the old den windows and walls.

I wish I had so many windows and doors though! Well, kinda, that is currently a limiting factor in my wall cab / range hood layout.

Ooooo that sink is so cool. I know I'm piling on after the horse has left for the party, or something, but fwiw I agree to stick with what you've got. -- It actually reminds me a little of the color of pumice from the photos at least. And I really love that color. A non-color that has color, iykwim. And I agree it's possible to overdo; you need contrast to appreciate what's so nice.

A winner!

Wow, that yours is going to be one breathtaking kitchen.

Haha, dianalo, the toxic argument is definitely a good one to make about why we are NOT painting the sink any more.

natschultz I agree it is ridiculous that "BLUE" sinks are purple. Especially b/c they are called blue. I was furious at this because the Whitehaus is called a "sapphire blue" and we ordered it on the basis of that and its (somewhat deceptive) online picture, even though it wasn't returnable because it seemed really nice online. Well, it came purple and then we were told that we'd agreed it was non-returnable. Which we did... but my argument at the time was, how can you sell a product labeled as one thing, and then say it cannot be returned when it looks like something else! It's like selling someone a Picasso and giving them a painting done by your 10 year old and saying "no returns, sorry!" [I've since gotten them to agree to exchange it for me, but only for a subzero refrigerator- very convoluted story!)

Anyway, yes, I do not understand why it is not possible to find an actual blue sink. Except for this one: http://www.herbeau.com/Products.aspx?Item=4603 Which I was actually wrong about, apparently the list price is over $4,000 and I looked back at my old email to my faucet person b/c I was curious and it was actually $3,700 for this one!

And you should have seen the initial layout suggested by the kitchen person my builder first sent us too... there was a 6 foot opening instead of one of those arched doors, and there was a door directly in the middle of the sink wall, which I've now moved to the opposite corner of the pantry. It was a nightmare!

Thanks aliris19. And on another note, I was just wondering what had happened w/ you paying up front on your custom cabinets and then I saw you posted in the other thread that it looks like it all is going to work out alright- which I am very glad to hear :)

Hi - I remember your post a couple months ago about the wrong color blue sink. I see that someone already mentioned toxicity, but yeah, as soon as I saw that you were considering painting a sink, I thought I better say something. I'm glad to hear you nixed it. That sink looks really elegant right now, as it is. I like the front edge of it. :o)

How exciting to see your progress! I am looking forward to more!

I love your idea of the blue sink, but the durability factor, like dianolo said, outweighs anything else.

Pilllog had a good point about the rest of the kitchen being more formal, but then someone else pointed out that the sink would be similar to a limestone look.

I think it will work and you'll be thrilled. This is a good example of how a kitchen evolves from the planning to the reality. Thanks for keeping us updated!

I love the lighter sink - it really compliments the Bahia blue beautifully.

OT - what windows are you using.
And are you using Dutchwood for your cabinetry, and how is that working out?

That sink is amazing--and with that stone--ooh la la!

Cannot wait to see it!

Thanks everyone for the positive comments on the sink :) I have told DF we are NOT painting it, so as long as it doesn't horribly clash when we take it to sit next to its granite friend, the non-painting is the definite and final choice.

Now, OT information for finestra below ;)

My windows are Anderson 400 series. The extent of my knowledge about them right now is: they are what our GC said to use, they have grills inside of the glass, they are all casement, some of them are custom, and we have bucketloads of them (I say to DF all the time, we have no walls- we have windows, fireplaces and cabinets and I wouldn't have it any other way!) Here are a few more pictures for you and if you want me to try to find out more, I will.
WINDOWS:

And yes, I am using Dutchwood. I cannot possibly go on long enough to say how happy I am with them so far. Their prices are so affordable, they are so responsive, they have not once said no to any zany thing I request, and every picture and sample cabinet I see is more beautiful than the last. I never have to wait for replies to questions, Jason drove all the way to meet me at the house when we were having the marble fireplace installed because I was so nervous about how it would work with the bookcases, and when I asked my GC to build me this curved fireplace thing he said it was going to be extremely difficult and expensive, and Dutch Wood is doing it with no problem.
Of course, how could I not love Dutch Wood-- -in addition to the kitchen, look at the beautiful room they are making for me: